Syrian Electronic Army Hackers Hit Sky News

Members of the Syrian Electronic Army recently hacked Sky News' Google Play account, replacing the news organization's applications for Android devices. The apps have since been removed from the Google Play store.

The Next Web reports that the apps for Sky+, Sky News, Sky Go, Sky Wifi, Sky Movies and Sky Sports news were all affected. The apps' descriptions on Google Play were replaced with the statement "Syrian Electronic Army Was Here," their screenshots were replaced with images from the Syrian Electronic Army, and the developer Web site links were replaced with links to the Syrian Electronic Army's Web site.

The hackers also took over the Sky Help Team Twitter account, posting the following, presumably with the aim of tricking users into uninstalling any Sky News apps already installed on their phones: "We are aware that the Android apps of Sky+,Sky News were hacked and replaced... please remove the apps if you are already installed it."

Tweets from the @SkyHD account later explained, "Due to a security breach Twitter has locked down @skyhelpteam & we are currently unable to tweet from it. Please use @skyhelpteam1" ... and "Sky Android apps previously downloaded by Sky customers are unaffected and there is no need to remove them from your Android device"